september days are here . . .

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

                                                                                         --Helen Hunt Jackson

It never fails . . . as one month passes into the next, I'm blown away by the speed of passing time.  Oh how I desperately want to cling to it!  But time is mastered by no man (or woman), so here it is, September already!

I have to admit, I'm kind of excited.  September means the autumn is just around the corner! I do adore decorating in the autumn . . .

Like this darling subway art print!  I found it over On Sutton Place.  She shares lots of lovely ideas and printables.  Definitely worth a visit.

While the calendar may say fall, we're still enjoying summer temps, that's for sure!  When the grandkids come out to the camp, they have different ways of beating the summer heat.  Sawyer and June, for example, are gung ho to be in the creek, splashing the day away . . .

Ellie, on the other hand, prefers to beat the heat by indulging in an indoor tea party . . .

They're all so cute, I can't say no to any of them (just ask Todd)!!  Soon Olivia will be splashing or tea drinking, too ... and Everley is due to arrive any day now!  My heart just bursts with love for them all!

The turtle sanctuary area continues to flourish.  Turtles love the heat and humidity.  They'll pile up on the slate rocks and just soak up sun. Unless one of us comes around with crickets or worms, then the run toward us!

Evidently the water lilies are liking the heat and humidity too:

Three beautiful lilies at one time!  I've really enjoyed seeing these through the summer. The flowers generally don't last but two-to-three days, but there's always at least one. So lovely!

Speaking of water, when I knew we were going to be heading down to the creek the other day, I needed a play skirt.  So I repurposed one of my older, going threadbare skirts.  I cut the bottom out of it (about eight inches), then cut off the hem with about an inch of excess fabric, so I could stitch it back onto the skirt and have an easy finished hem.

There were still a few 'thin' spots, so I covered them with heart patches I made from the excess I'd cut off. I've had this skirt for seven years -- it's worn, but comfortable -- like a favorite pair of jeans! I hope I've made it so I can enjoy it for another five or so years!

With the start of September, I started this great book by Becky Harling, the 30 day praise challenge. It was a Kindle freebie, but I think it's gone back up.

I've read Part One and have gone through the first two days.  It's marvelous!! There's a group on facebook going through it together and anyone is welcome to join! I'll be linking this up to the Bibliophile Files over at sarah did it!

And since yesterday was the first day of September, it seemed fitting to make an apple pie! With apples fresh off my neighbor's tree and a homemade pie crust to boot! 

I enjoyed it for breakfast this morning, too, New England style (with my cup of hot tea, of course)!

Oh yeah, glorious autumn is just waiting around the corner, ready to make her spectacular entrance!!

a finish, a start, and a ufo-no-mo . . .

Well, a UFO no more, almost.  Well, not even that.  Random blocks no more. Actually, a completed, pieced top in the making and almost finished.  But that doesn't work as well in the title!

I can't believe it's been almost TWO year since I received these Journey Steps blocks from a block swap my Stitcher's Group had . . .

I blogged about it here.  And I took the blocks off my wall and didn't fool with them again.  I didn't particularly want to make any more blocks.  And then there was the dilemma I had with a couple of them being too small.  *But* we'd agreed to share our finished tops as a group at this month's guild meeting. Which is Thursday.  And I was feeling the pressure to participate.  So I pulled them out . . . 

. . . and started playing around in EQ to see if I could find a setting I liked and could work with, without having to make more blocks. These are some options I came up with:

A six-by-six block placement allowed me to square up the setting and use all the blocks .... by using the smaller blocks as cornerstones in the border.  

Then I decided I wanted the corner blocks to be inset in the border:

The center is now pieced!  I like this *SO* much better than the original placement.

I'm headed out to one of my LQSs to pick out a Civil War print for the border and one for the binding.  I do believe I'll have show and tell for Thursday!  (Although when it will actually be quilted, bound, and completely finished, who knows???) Linking up to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times and Design Wall Monday!

I also finished up my little September apple block:

What fun it was!  I even bit the bullet and FMQ'd little leaves all over the plaid. I'm particularly pleased with the result.  And now I'm all ready for a new month in my little quilt stand!

Finally, I started a new project . . . 

This is from Edyta Sitar's Seasonal Silhouettes collection -- the October block (surprise, surprise)!  I purchased three sets of the laser cut kits.  AWESOME!  I'll frame it out and then quilt it.  It's too big to go in my quilt stand, but I want to leave them as stand-alones.  (I have two more kits -- November's and December's!)

And I also 'dabbled' in cream cheese mints last weekend ... for a friend's daughter's wedding reception. Three hundred eighty cream cheese mints.  

Whew!  Her colors were sunflower yellow and azure blue.  And sunflowers decorated everything -- my kind of decor! The wedding was beautiful and the mints were a hit. I'm just glad they're not in my house any more!

I'm off to get into my Monday groove!  Y'all have a *great* week!!

:)

some bits and pieces . . .

Just a quickie post . . . I still have a LOT to catch up on, but I wanted to share a couple of fun things.  First off, I headed out to stitch with our Stitchers' Group last night and look what my friend Jackie had for me:

WHOOHOO!!  I'm in Miniature Quilts magazine heaven!!  And these are ALL new from the ones I scored here.  I sure wish they still published this little gem!

I liked my summer sunflower so much, I decided I wanted to do something for September.  That month just screams apples to me so I searched my hard drive for an appropriate design.  Here's what I came up with...

Fun, no?  I still have to do some stitching and then put it onto a back ground and quilt it, but I think I'll be in good shape when September rolls around!  In fact, I'm already thinking pumpkins! (Bahaha!)

I spent a nice day with Joc and Ellie, in my digs.  I broke my toe this week and damaged the tendons connected to it, so they came here!

Ellie had a ball looking out the window at the birds and squirrels and chipmunks.  She even took a nap up in the big bed -- a first!

And since it *is* Feline Friday and I've been *so* lax about that for most of this year (I'm sorry Sarah!!!), I figured I'd share Leia in her new digs . . .

Yup.  Nothing's changed for her!! 

Happy weekend!!!

:)